Piracy, but with all the fiction and Diosney drained out of it. Highly recommended, and brilliantly read.

This is a curiously good book for a fan of Treasure Island. On the surface it's the memoir of an Englishman who was captured by pirates off Cuba in the 1820s, forced to work as a pirate while suffering wretched ignobilities, then captured by the English and put on trial for piracy. The book is the authors attempt to restore his reputation, to show he was a good guy and not a pirate. It's impossible to know how much was embellished as it was self-serving. Even contemporary reviewers said the same, they found it an exciting narrative, but unsure what to believe. There is no way to know. Whatever the case, it's a great story with insights into pirate sub-culture. The pirate captain is the best character, he is an unpredictable paranoid sadist who kills for the slightest reason yet is easily manipulated, the proverbial loose canon in all senses. There is little of the romanticism made famous with the morally ambiguous Long John Silver in Treasure Island. It reminded me of accounts by captives in modern day Afghanistan or Colombia in terms of the terror each day brings not knowing what would happen next. My overall sense is most of the story is true because there were witnesses still alive when it was published who could have otherwise refuted the facts. The 1999 print edition contains a foreword and afterward with additional information by the relatives of Smith, not included here. Also, a great job by James K. White for LibriVox, these older texts are difficult to narrate smoothly but he never falters.

[STB|787|042012]

I'm not prone to giving 5 stars but this story, and the reader, deserve it. An interesting set of views into not only pirates but also local Cuban magistrates, priests, black markets, the US Navy etc. It works on many levels and it's not "too long", so give it a try...